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On Obedience
This compact book, one of Adrienne von Speyr's last works, dives into the mystery of Christian obedience, thus bringing the reader into the heart of authentic Christian love.
Profoundly misunderstood in our time, obedience is not just a vow for monks and nuns. Nor does it mean domination, an automatic response of a slave or puppet. Rather, it is the free, creative, and open-hearted response of a perceptive child of God.
Obedience flows through the very core of reality in all its heaven and earth, God and creation, Christ and man. It colors the life of the family, the life of man in the world, the life of the Christian before God, and even the life of God himself, because obedience means, above all, listening. Only in obedience does joy, indeed life, become possible.
Von Speyr, with a marvelous clarity, precision, and practicality, reveals at once the widest expanses and the subtlest shades of Christian obedience, uncovering for the reader a new path to prayer and to Triune love. And this is a path for all, lay and consecrated alike.
Profoundly misunderstood in our time, obedience is not just a vow for monks and nuns. Nor does it mean domination, an automatic response of a slave or puppet. Rather, it is the free, creative, and open-hearted response of a perceptive child of God.
Obedience flows through the very core of reality in all its heaven and earth, God and creation, Christ and man. It colors the life of the family, the life of man in the world, the life of the Christian before God, and even the life of God himself, because obedience means, above all, listening. Only in obedience does joy, indeed life, become possible.
Von Speyr, with a marvelous clarity, precision, and practicality, reveals at once the widest expanses and the subtlest shades of Christian obedience, uncovering for the reader a new path to prayer and to Triune love. And this is a path for all, lay and consecrated alike.
152 pages, Paperback
Published February 22, 2024
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About the author
Adrienne von Speyr
139 books42 followersAdrienne von Speyr was a Swiss medical doctor and the author of over 60 books on spirituality and theology.
Von Speyr was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Her father, Theodor von Speyr, was an ophthalmologist. Her mother, Laure Girard, was the descendant of a family of noted watchmakers and jewelers from Geneva and Neuenburg. Speyr was her parents' second child.
Speyr's mother scolded her daily and this led her to form a strong trust and devotion to God, as well as a recognition of the meaning of sacrifice and renunciation. She formed a deep relationship with her grandmother, a holy and pious woman. She also had a devotion to her father, who treated her with mutual respect and understanding, often taking her with him to the hospital to visit sick children. In her primary school years she began working with the poor and even formed a society with her friends for those living in poverty.
Speyr became a Roman Catholic on 1 November 1940, the Feast of All Saints, when she was 38, under the spiritual direction of the prominent priest and theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar.
She is considered by many to have been a mystic and is reputed to have had mystical experiences of the Trinity and the saints.
While in a state of contemplative, mystical prayer, she dictated to Balthasar over 60 books, including commentaries on the Bible and various theological topics. With Balthasar she co-founded a secular institute, the Johannesgemeinschaft (Community of St. John). Her reputed mystical experiences grew in frequency until her death in Basel, Switzerland, on 17 September 1967.
Von Speyr was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Her father, Theodor von Speyr, was an ophthalmologist. Her mother, Laure Girard, was the descendant of a family of noted watchmakers and jewelers from Geneva and Neuenburg. Speyr was her parents' second child.
Speyr's mother scolded her daily and this led her to form a strong trust and devotion to God, as well as a recognition of the meaning of sacrifice and renunciation. She formed a deep relationship with her grandmother, a holy and pious woman. She also had a devotion to her father, who treated her with mutual respect and understanding, often taking her with him to the hospital to visit sick children. In her primary school years she began working with the poor and even formed a society with her friends for those living in poverty.
Speyr became a Roman Catholic on 1 November 1940, the Feast of All Saints, when she was 38, under the spiritual direction of the prominent priest and theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar.
She is considered by many to have been a mystic and is reputed to have had mystical experiences of the Trinity and the saints.
While in a state of contemplative, mystical prayer, she dictated to Balthasar over 60 books, including commentaries on the Bible and various theological topics. With Balthasar she co-founded a secular institute, the Johannesgemeinschaft (Community of St. John). Her reputed mystical experiences grew in frequency until her death in Basel, Switzerland, on 17 September 1967.
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